1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a printer which performs image printing on a print surface of a flat shaped print medium by a thermal transfer method.
2. Related Art
Conventionally, printers for performing printing on print media which are stiff and shaped like plates, such as optical disks or magnetic cards, have been known (for example, refer to Japanese patent publication JP 2007-301879 A). In some such printers, the print medium is usually placed on a print tray and transported with the print tray. A recessed section which has a shape conforming to an outside shape of the print medium is formed on the print tray. Then, positioning of a recording medium relative to the print tray is achieved by placing and housing the print medium in the recessed section. On the other hand, a print tray for a printer in which an optical disc is used as the print medium is equipped with a plurality of clamping lugs which are brought into intimate contact with a circumferential edge of an opening (center hole) formed in the center of the optical disc, to thereby clamp the optical disc. Then, the optical disc is retained by the clamping lugs and accordingly prevented from unintentional dropping off or lifting up. However, the clamping lugs effectively function only for optical discs having a center hole, while flat shaped print media having no center hole, such as magnetic cards or IC cards, are typically simply placed on the print tray in many cases.
In the printer as described above, a sheet material on which a print image is formed is pressed against a print surface of the print medium in a planar manner by a heat roller and a separation roller, to thereby realize print processing. When the print image is pressed against the print surface, the print image is transferred to the print surface. Here, the heat roller is a roller containing in the inside thereof a heat source, and the ink that constitutes the print image is heated by the heat source and accordingly fused. On the other hand, the separation roller is a roller installed at a separating position where the sheet material pressed against the print surface is separated from the print surface. Upon reaching a location of the separation roller, a forwarding direction of the sheet material which has been substantially parallel to the print surface is turned to an obliquely upward direction. Then, the turning of the forwarding direction to the obliquely upward direction causes the sheet material to be separated from the print surface.
However, for the print medium in which the center hole is not provided, the above-described separation of the sheet material subsequent to a transfer process could not be realized smoothly and efficiently in some cases. Namely, the print medium having no center hole is simply placed on the print tray as described above without any mechanism to prevent the print medium from being lifted up. Therefore, when the sheet member is forwarded to the obliquely upward direction for separation, the print medium might be lifted obliquely upward while adhering to the sheet member in some cases. Accordingly, there have been problems that the print image is not sufficiently transferred, and that failure is caused by taking up the sheet member with the print medium which remains affixed to the sheet member.
Hence, the present invention advantageously provides a printer capable of performing print processing in a smooth and efficient manner even on a print medium in which a center hole is absent.